N9WP Old Antenna Pictures

Since I have posted this page, I have moved to a new house. At my new location, the Hustler 6-btv is ground mounted with ground radials and it seems to be doing almost as good as it did when mounted on the roof of my old house. Following is my setup for that antenna at the old house:

The Hustler 6-btv Trap Vertical Antenna is mounted to a 5 foot mast attached at the base of the garage roof and the peak of the house roof. The Hustler is 25 feet tall with radials consisting of 14 guage insulated wires cut to different 1/4 wave lengths for the different bands stapled to the roof sloping down with the roof. If you look close enough at the pictures you can see the shinny reflection of the radials on the roof. I could probably get much better performance if I elevated the radials off the roof but I don't much feel like doing that much work and I get good results with how it is now. The only time the SWR's change is when it rains but even then it only effects the SWR by just a little bit. The radials are basically in 4 groups making an X with the Hustler vertical in the middle of that X. Each group of radials consists of one radial from each band.

If you look close enough in this picture you can see my Diamond CP22E 2 meter antenna. The Diamond CP22E 2 meter antenna is a pretty good performer for the money. It has a 6.5db gain and seems to work well on simplex but I'd still like to raise it up another 10 feet sometime this summer. You can also notice that the Hustler Verical is very flexable in the wind. It sways easily but in calm conditions, it always returns upright. I think that eventually I will tie a guy rope from the Hustler vertical to the back of the house. It has survived 50 mph winds this winter.

Here's a picture from the back side of the house. You can clearly see the Hustler vertical and the Diamond CP22E 2 meter antenna on top of the Radio Shack TV antenna. If you look close enough you will notice the coax coming down the roof from the Hustler antenna. Follow staight down from the Hustler Vertical and you can see the cable on the back side of the house. What looks like a shadow, running down the roof from the Hustler 6-btv to the TV antenna are actually radials. They blend into the roof really good don't they?

This is just another back of the house from the edge of the driveway shot.

This shows how the cables are routed into the house. Instead of seeing the cables go through a big hole in the side of the house into the shack, I put up a utility box to make it look professional. You can clearly see my cables for the 2 meter antenna, the Hustler HF antenna and the ground braid for RF. Soon this box will hold the PolyPhaser Coaxial Protectors for Lightning protection. To add to the lightning protection, I plan to add copper wire from the mast holding the Hustler antenna to a couple grounding rods.

I hope this gives you a better idea on how I've got everything set up. It seems to work for me, in less then a year I've worked 88 different countries and 41 of the 50 United States. My furthest contact has been on the mainland of Australia, I've hit Norfolk Island a couple times - Island East of Australia, New Zealand, and Japan a dozen times. Most of my QSO's are out of Europe, North and South America but alot of things depends on conditions too. This antenna does not tune flat across the bands. If it did, it's not installed properly. The resonant frequency is around a 1 to 1 but you can get 3 to 1 at the band edges. On 80 meters, there isn't much to play with so if you want this to work for you on 80, think about something else. If you need 10, 15, 20, or 40 meters, this or the Hustler 5btv antenna would get the job done. From what I've read, verticals have a lower take off angle then a dipole therefore you might have a better chance at DX with a vertical. One drawback with the vertical is they hear more noise because they are listening in all directions. I would love to put up a tower someday with a beam or put up a dipole but finances aren't always there and if you notice from the pictures, the few trees I have in my yard are small.

Sorry for the picture quality, my camara doesn't take the best of pictures and I cut down on the resolution so this page wouldn't take a day to load.

I purchased the Hustler 6-btv for $180.00 and the Diamond CP22E for $50.00 from AES. It arrived in 2 days without any problems. It took an hour one evening to assemble both antennas and the better half of a day to mount them. Thank-you to N9YI for your help with the installation.

73's and God bless from N9WP